The Pain of a Blood-Blue Soul
by Xyrule
Summary: Isla Sorna has been deemed an international wildlife preserve after every effort to eradicate the island's unique ecosystem has failed. The island, known for being the "Planet of the Dinosaurs" has become a frequent site of illegal poaching. However, poachers have recently been targeted by a pack of raptors that seem to be capable of strategizing…
1. Prologue

**I'm sorry for the error in the previous version. It was my mistake, and I apologize for making you all wait for it to be fixed.**

April 7, 2022 Isla Sorna

"Are you absolutely sure you know what you're doing, Mac?" a man in full khaki clothing asked, shifting his grip on the rifle he was holding. "What if that Spinosaurus that was on the news report is nearby? We don't have the juice to take down anything much larger than a stegosaur."

The man walking ahead of him, dressed in the same clothing, shifted his hat so that the large brim blocked the sun from getting in his eyes and laughed. "Quit your worrying, Jeff. InGen's records show that it hatched forty years ago. Dinosaurs don't live very long, it's probably died of old age by now."

The second man, Jeff, shook his head worriedly. "But they're said to live for a century." he said.

Mac laughed again. "Quit your crying, already. It doesn't really matter how old it can get anyway, it's a big dino. We'll hear it long before it hears us, and then we can retreat to safety." He checked the radar map on the high-tech visor he wore over his eyes and nodded. "Now, come on. That pack of hadrosaurs is only a few thousand meters away now."

"Trust me, a Spinosaurus isn't what you should be afraid of." a voice suddenly said from the trees.

Both poachers raised their weapons to face the source of the voice, eliciting a laugh from the source.

"Now, now, no need for violence." the voice said, and with a rustling of leaves and underbrush, a man stepped into view.

He leaned sideways on a tree trunk and nodded towards the poachers. "Put the weapons down already, I'm not the biggest danger here either."

The poachers simultaneously blinked and lowered their rifles, surprised. The man wore an old pair of jeans and a faded t-shirt under a tan military vest. He was dressed like he was hiking in the Andes, rather than in the middle of an island populated by dinosaurs.

"Who are you?" Jeff asked gruffly. "Are you a ranger?"

The man laughed. "Really? A ranger, here? If there were any rangers here to begin with, they've all been eaten by now." he said lightly, as if they were just discussing the weather.

"Do you realize where you are?" Mac asked. "This is Isla Sorna, the most dangerous place on Earth, and you're acting like it's Tahiti." He was already on edge by simply being here, but this man's laid-back manner was just plain unnatural.

The man laughed again and shifted his position, stretching his back before leaning on the tree again. "I'm well aware of the dangers here. And Spinosaurus isn't really much of a threat, you know. It's the raptors you've gotta worry about."

Jeff smirked and raised his rifle. "We can deal with raptors." he said.

The man's eyes seemed to flash at he glared at the poacher. "Well, now, you've gone and made me angry. You don't have long to live. Why don't you spend your last precious moments doing something other than killing innocent animals?" he said, a definite threatening tone lining his voice.

Jeff smirked. "Oh, you think you're some kind of wise guy, huh?" he asked. "We're in the top of our field. Nothing gets past our tracking sensors without us noticing." he bragged.

The man looked to either side, then back at the poacher with a look of faked confusion across his face. "Then why didn't you notice the pack of Utahraptors that have surrounded us?" he asked.

The poachers looked at him blankly. "What Utah-" Jeff began, but was cut off by a scream from behind.

He whirled around to see Mac flat on the ground, with a raptor's foot pressed firmly on his back, holding him down, and with a second raptor's head lowered, sniffing his face.

Mac looked at Jeff, a silent look of pure terror across his face. "Help...me...please…" he managed to say, before screaming again as the Utahraptor on his back pressed its 13-inch toe claw partway into his vertebral column, causing him to become paralyzed with the sudden, sharp pain of his spinal cord being severed.

Jeff stared in shock at his partner and the pair of raptors around him, then glanced back at the other man.

"What are you still doing here?" he yelled at him. "Run for your life!"

The man smiled. "Oh, now you're noble." he said. "Why should I run? They wouldn't hurt their alpha." he answered, grinning widely.

Jeff looked at him in shock , so startled that he was unable to react as two more raptors leapt out from either side of him and slashed the claws on their forearms across his back and chest, as a third ripped the rifle out of his hands.

He collapsed to the ground and stared at the man standing in front of him, untouched by the raptors and still grinning.

His final memory was of one of the raptors stepping up to the man and bowing submissively to him.


	2. Goodbye

June 13, 2015 Isla Nublar

Owen Grady smiled as he watched Zach and Grey's parents reunite with them in the middle of the massive Visitor Center, with Claire standing awkwardly near them.

After several minutes of hugging, kissing, and crying, mostly on the part of their parents, the family prepared to leave. Owen smiled again and looked down, letting the events of the last 24 hours go through his head.

"Owen!" a voice called out, and he looked up.

There, a few feet away, stood Grey Mitchell, the youngest of the two brothers.

"Hey, Grey. Still want to become a paleontologist?" Owen asked, laughing at the boy's rapid negative response.

"Are you coming?" Grey asked. Owen smiled and shook his head.

"Nah, I have to get some things straightened out." he replied. He smiled at the downhearted look on the kid's face. "Hey, maybe I'll come and visit sometime." he promised.

Grey smiled. "You won't still be working for Masrani, will you?" he asked.

Owen laughed. "Absolutely not." he said, causing Grey to laugh as well.

"Grey, it's time to go!" the child's father called. He looked back at them, then at Owen.

"Bye!" he said, waving his hand as he ran back to his family.

Owen smiled again and waved goodbye as the group walked out the door and on their way.

He looked around at the mostly-empty Visitor Center, sighing to himself as the last few families reunited and left.

He had waved goodbye to far more than just Grey. He had waved goodbye to his career. He had waved goodbye to the relationships he had made during the last several hours. He had waved goodbye to Blue, the last of his raptors, somewhere alone on the island, and he had waved goodbye to those that had not lasted so long.

But he had not waved goodbye to dinosaurs.


	3. On Isla Sorna

June 26, 2015 Isla Sorna

Owen stood on the eastern coast of Isla Sorna, looking up at the mountain range that ringed the entire island.

He sighed, looking back at the small one-man motorboat he had piloted to the island, then down at the sand that made up the thin strip of beach that ringed the island.

He started moving forward, taking with him a single backpack filled with supplies. The boat he simply left where he got off; he wouldn't need it anymore.

It only took him a couple hours to climb the trough between two low mountains and enter the true forest that covered much of the island. As he walked, the sound of the waves crashing on the beach was quickly replaced by the sounds of animals as they went about their day.

Owen smiled, breathing in the forest air. There was a low breeze blowing through, and with it came all kinds of scents, pollens, and spores. It showed Owen what was wrong with the way InGen and Masrani had both treated their creations.

They had kept the dinosaurs alone in paddocks, except the lucky few that needed to be in a herd or pack to survive. This atmosphere proved to him that they lived best when free, unbound by borders and guards.

As he had said before, they were animals, not just numbers. They needed to live free, not in cages.

The atmosphere here solidified his decision. He would stay here. He would become a part of this ecosystem, away from human influence.

Here, there was no corporation to create a hybrid. Here, he could live happy, knowing that no human influence could kill the dinosaurs he decides spend his years with.


	4. Raptors

June 26, 2015 Isla Sorna

Owen had barely become certain he'd stay when the island tried to prove him wrong.

While he was standing still, lost in the smells and sounds of the forest, he was alert enough to hear a twig crack to his left.

He snapped out of his reverie and turned to face the source of the sound, just in time to see a raptor leap from the cover of the trees, claws splayed out.

He gritted his teeth. He was not the kind of person to scream and shut down, but he was not the kind of person to blindly fight.

He was smart, and within the instant he had, he noticed that the raptor was far larger than his pack had been. Whatever species it was, it clearly wasn't a Velociraptor.

That meant he couldn't fight it, but perhaps he could at least convince it not to attack.

He went into action, putting a foot out and holding his arm out in the stance he had often used when training his Velociraptor pack.

"Stop." he said simply, and to his surprise, the raptor halted its attack, landing on the ground and coming to a stop.

The raptor stood, claws raised, but to Owen's relief, it was no longer in an attack stance. Rather, it stood still, staring at him. It tilted its head and made a small hissing sound.

Three more raptors emerged to either side, staring at Owen curiously. He looked at them, keeping his hand raised and facing the first raptor.

The three circled around, keeping a close eye on him, until they were standing to either side of the first raptor. The four looked at each other and made several sounds, communicating among themselves. Owen didn't know exactly what they were telling each other, but he had a pretty good guess that they were asking why they hadn't attacked him yet.

The time they spent communicating allowed him to study them a little better. They were much larger than the Velociraptors he had trained, but not much larger than the ones InGen had created for the first Jurassic Park. These, however, had vivid markings, unlike the original raptors. He thought back to the training he had received from Masrani when he had accepted the Jurassic World job, and decided that these were Utahraptors.

That was either very bad news for him, or very good news. Utahraptors were the smartest dromaeosaurs, and likely the smartest of all dinosaurs. If they decided not to just eat him straight away, perhaps he could convince them somehow to ignore him…

"Alright." he said, causing the four to stop chattering and focus their attention on him. "Do you understand me?" he asked.

The first raptor, who he by now assumed was the alpha, raised its head back, then looked at one of the raptors, snapping at it and, with a tilt of its head and a crackling noise, motioned to Owen.

The raptor the alpha had instructed made another crackling sound in response, and stepped up closer to him, lowering and raising its head in an exaggerated attempt at a nod.

Owen looked at the raptor that had stepped forward. It had a bright red stripe running across the top of its head that the other three didn't have. "You understand me?" he asked. The raptor raised its arms and spread its claws slightly, making a quick series of clicking sounds by opening and closing its jaws in what he guessed was an affirmative answer.

He nodded. "Good. Tell your pack they don't want to eat me."

The raptor blinked, then turned to the other raptors and, through a series of sounds and body motions, translated what it could of what he said to them.

The leader made a low hiss and responded to the translation with the flick of a claw.

Owen thought, knowing it had asked what reason he had. "I'm not your enemy, and I'm not food. I can help you."


	5. Alliance

The translating raptor blinked again and let out a surprised hiss, then turned to face the pack again. It took a little longer than last time for it to explain what he had said, but it seemed to get the point across, as the alpha raised its head and stepped forward, coming within inches of Owen's face, and sniffed at him several times before backing up a few paces.

Owen relaxed slightly, feeling that the alpha's actions had indicated that it wasn't planning on attacking anymore. The pack now seemed more curious now than anything else of this peculiar human who was talking to them instead of running.

"I understand things you can't." he continued. "How to better strategize, how to alter circumstances to fit your needs, how to plan for the future."

The translating raptor began to translate, but stopped when he mentioned the future, tilting its head questioningly at him.

He nodded and sighed. "Right, you don't actually know what the future is. It's...well, it's things that haven't happened yet."

The translator made a puzzled chirp, them repeated what he had said to the others, who made the same sound, tilting their heads at him.

The alpha looked thoughtful for several moments, before nodding its head.

When it did so, the others visibly relaxed, releasing the tension they were storing in case the alpha decided to attack.

Owen relaxed as well, and even smiled. For the first time, he had managed to make a pact with a raptor pack, fully grown adults, without any need for imprinting.

Perhaps this alliance would be good for them all.


End file.
